Scientist: you are born gay
The brains of gay men and women look like those found in heterosexual people of the opposite sex, research suggests.
According to reports today from the BBC, the study suggests sexual orientation may be set in the womb
The brains of gay men and women look like those found in heterosexual people of the opposite sex, research suggests.
The Swedish study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, compared the size of the brain’s halves in 90 adults.
Gay men and heterosexual women had halves of a similar size, while the right side was bigger in lesbian women and heterosexual men.
A UK scientist told the British new service this was evidence sexual orientation was set in the womb.
Scientists have noticed for some time that homosexual people of both sexes have differences in certain cognitive abilities, suggesting there may be subtle differences in their brain structure.
This is the first time, however, that scientists have used brain scanners to try to look for the source of those differences.
A group of 90 healthy gay and heterosexual adults, men and women, were scanned by the Karolinska Institute scientists to measure the volume of both sides, or hemispheres, of their brain.
When these results were collected, it was found that lesbians and heterosexual men shared a particular “asymmetry” in their hemisphere size, while heterosexual women and gay men had no difference between the size of the different halves of their brain.
In other words, structurally, at least, the brains of gay men were more like heterosexual women, and gay women more like heterosexual men.
A further experiment found that in one particular area of the brain, the amygdala, there were other significant differences.
Dr Qazi Rahman, a lecturer in cognitive biology at Queen Mary, University of London, said that he believed that these brain differences were laid down early in foetal development.
“As far as I’m concerned there is no argument any more – if you are gay, you are born gay,” he said.
While it’s my personal belief we are born gay, this research is far from conclusive. To rely on weak studies like this would not give us as a community much credibility. Neuroimaging studies like this aren’t new. The biggest problem is correlating structure with function. We need neurofunctional imaging such a spect imaging. While it’s nice the scientific community is eager to support us, let’s support them by not jumping on conclusions outside of the scope of the data. Also donate to research funding too. ;-)